Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Quite probably Frankie Bow is one of my top favorite cozy mystery authors. I leap at any opportunity to review her novels, and once I open one, it's full-on read through to the end. BLACK THUMB is a great read, very entertaining, with excellent character evolution and plenty of tension and what-will-happen-next excitement. Especially tense were the confrontations between protagonist Molly and her well-meaning but currently misguided friends. This is a wonderful and endearing series.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Fortunes, fineries, and foul play . . .
It’s whale-watching season in Redwood Cove, and B&B manager Kelly Jackson’s battening down the hatches for the tourist rush at Redwood Heights—a Victorian-style estate owned by her boss. And due to recent jewelry thefts, her duties include keeping track of the many dust-covered artifacts spread throughout the property. But when Kelly finds Sylvia Porter’s lifeless body, menial tasks don’t seem so terrible. Enlisting the help of a ragtag group of brainy retirees, aka the “Silver Sentinels,” Kelly’s on the hunt for clues hidden behind the mansion’s glamorous façade. . .and for a killer who may want to make history of her next!

janet finsilver

About the Author
Janet Finsilver is the USA TODAY best-selling author of the Kelly Jackson mystery series. She worked in education for many years as a teacher, a program administrator, and a workshop presenter. Janet majored in English and earned a Master’s Degree in Education. She loves animals and has two dogs–Kylie and Ellie. Janet has ridden western style since she was a child and was a member of the National Ski Patrol. One of the highlights of her life was touching whales in the San Ignacio Lagoon. MURDER AT REDWOOD COVE, her debut mystery, was released on October 13, 2015. Her second book, MURDER AT THE MANSION, was released on June 7, 2016.

When Kelly Jackson gratefully accepts the position of manager at the newly renovated Redwood Heights B&B on the Northern California coast, she's expecting a new start in an exciting job in a beautifully scenic locale. She gets all that, plus reunion with the Silver Sentinels, a group of 5 feisty and smart seniors. She isn't expecting to stumble over death, but when it happens, Kelly and the Sentinels team up.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

About the Book:
One day, nine-year-old Charlotte has two surprises—she notices a patch of the forest slowly vanishing and discovers a lost puppy caught in a bramble bush. She rescues it and takes it home. Returning to the woods, she notes the sinking area getting wider and deeper. Her parents and the authorities caution her to stay away, but Charlotte worries the sinking will allow other puppies to escape the kennel and get lost, too. When another puppy escapes and becomes trapped in the now enormous sinkhole, Charlotte can find no one else to help it. As a fierce rainstorm arises, and the fallen tree the pups cling to begins to disappear through the opening at the center of the sinkhole, she realizes it is up to her to save the pups.

Can she rescue the pups and get out herself before the giant sinkhole swallows everything?

Review of CHARLOTTE AND THE MYSTERIOUS VANISHING PLACE by Charles A. Salter
Kare Kids Adventures #2

This is a really exciting children's series by an accomplished author, suitable for upper elementary through middle grade readers. (Younger readers may enjoy having the books read to them.) There's plenty of adventure and suspense, including a few heartstopping moments. In CHARLOTTE AND THE MYSTERIOUS VANISHING PLACE, Charlotte, nearly 10, rescues expensive purebred puppies, and in fact, acts to save the neighborhood of her home.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Will our girl finally settle down and mature? Or will her consistently painful heartache over the "love of her life" and her frequent instability based on her past history and its suffering continue to keep her a virtual transient? Finally, finally, something is working right for her: the Furry Friends Foundation, the no-kill shelter she founded for cats and dogs, is successful and productive. Not enough for Mina, though, she sets up yet another business, Ritzy Cats B&B, and there more trouble starts. Of course! And equally of course, the mysterious, elusive, Diego, her life-long, must disappear undercover once again...and...what after all is a girl to do, when all she wants is stability, in home, love, and profession.

An intriguing cozy set in England, specifically the Chelsea area of London, by accomplished and prolific author Marty Wingate, whose mysteries are right on target every single time. Transplanted Texan Pru Parke is tapped to help out at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. She isn't sure why, but an opportunity to garden is never rejected, and she's delighted to assist. She certainly is not expecting to be the temporary person-in-charge, nor could she expect a vicious murder to occur in the confines of the area being prepared by the Austin [TX] Rock Garden Society. But Pru also cannot resist a mystery on her very doorstep (figuratively) especially when the deceased continues to address her. So with the help of husband Christopher, former Met Detective Chief Inspector, she is off to discover and uncover the truth.

I especially appreciate this series. the Potting Shed Mysteries (this is #5) because the protagonist Pru is fiftyish, married for the first time, deeply in love with an equally devoted husband, and although an American native, feels at home in England. I am exposed to so much of the scenery and culture of the English through reading these excellent stories.

Synopsis
When a treasure hunt leads to deadly plunder, it’s up to glass shop owner Savannah Webb and her trusty investigative posse to map out the true motives of a killer . . .
It’s the dog days of summer in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Webb’s Glass Shop proprietor Savannah Webb has an eco-friendly plan to help locals escape the heat–a recyclable bottle-crafting workshop taught by reticent store manager Amanda Blake. Turns out, the class is a bigger smash than expected, thanks in part to a pair of staggeringly old bottles brought in by snorkeler Martin Lane . . .
Linked to a storied pirate shipwreck, the relics definitely pique Savannah’s interest. But intrigue turns to shock when Martin’s lifeless body washes ashore the next morning, another glass artifact tucked in his dive bag. With cell phone records connecting Amanda to the drowning, Savannah must voyage through unchartered territory to exonerate her colleague and capture the twisted criminal behind Martin’s death . . .

CHERYL HOLLEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cheryl Hollon now writes full-time after she left an engineering career of designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind her house in St. Petersburg, Florida, Cheryl and her husband design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass, and painted glass artworks. Visit her online at http://cherylhollon.com, on Facebook or on Twitter @CherylHollon.

I really enjoy this series, which is in the "crafting cozies" category. Although stained glass work and restoration is likely not something I will ever take up, still I find it fascinating and love to read about the process and the beauty of the results. Author Cheryl Hollon has thoroughly researched and experienced this topic, and makes the enthusiasm, sometimes even obsession, of her character artisans so easy to comprehend.

Additionally, her characters are (mostly) likable. I think she does especially well with the character of Jacob, the young man who has Asperger's Syndrome, but yet is a talented, almost genius, artist at working with stained glass. Protagonist Savannah Webb is the scion of a stained-glass family, now with her in its third generation, following her father's untimely death. Relocating from Seattle to Florida, she has not only preserved her family's legacy of Webb's Glass Shop, but has also remodeled an abandoned warehouse to offer studio rental space, and she is an important component of the city's art community.